Gay and lesbian people in Russia - in pictures

Gay and lesbian people in Russia - in pictures

When the Duma passed draconian anti-gay laws last year, there was outrage in Russia, but also a disturbing amount of approval. Ahead of next month's winter Olympics in Sochi, photographer Isabella Moore travelled the country to hear from gay people – and also from those ranged against them

The new law has made Aleksey, 36, and Aleksey, 37, who work in the music business and IT respectively, think of leaving their homeland: ‘If there is going to be more aggression against gay people supported by the state, it is the only way to survive.’ Together for 11 years, they are disillusioned by the increasing homophobia of a Putin-led government: ‘We travel and we see that things are changing for gay people in many countries in a positive way. In Russia, because of President Putin, his KGB wing and the Orthodox church, things are likely to become more tragic for gay people.’

Andrey Bartenev, 48, is a famous Russian performance artist who first rose to prominence in 1990s Moscow by orchestrating elaborate costumed performances. He represented Russia in the 2007 Venice Biennale. ‘Historically Russia was already a homophobic country, but after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 there was a new freedom where people could all live with “this gay and lesbian population”, and gay culture became a part of all culture,’ he says. Andrey’s reaction, when asked if he’d like to step outside for the portrait, is understandable given that Putin’s new law includes handing out hefty fines and imprisonment for homosexual propaganda. ‘I don’t want to spend any day of my life in prison, because I was not born for this,’ says Andrey. ‘I was born to show people lightness and fun, to exist.’

Irina Fedorishcheva, 28, and Svetlana Shompolova, 28, share a small apartment with Irina’s daughter Ekaterina, 7, and Svetlana’s son Alexey, 7. They are friends and have been renting the apartment they live in since July. They have both separated from their husbands - recently Svetlana’s husband accused her of being in a lesbian relationship with Irina so that he could take custody of their son through legal action. Svetlana’s own parents also tried to take him purely because they believe she is a lesbian. Local social services supported the move but, as the bill against gay parents was yet to pass, they had no legal grounds for removing the child; “There has been a 15 pages long psychological expertise presented in our court case based on Svetlana’s parents words that stated Svetlana, myself and our lawyer Anastasia were aggressive lesbians, crazy, that all gay people are horrible drunkards, having AIDS, obnoxious sluts and so on.”

Irina Zlobina (seated) and Olga Kochetkova, both 41, fell in love in 1991, when they were 19. Olga says: ‘Our inner homophobia wouldn’t let us live together back then. This is why we broke up.’ At that time it seemed nobody was openly gay in Russia. ‘Twenty years ago, Irina honestly thought that there were two gay people in the whole world: Sir Elton John and her,’ says Olga. They went on to have families and lives of their own but reunited seven years ago and now live together. ‘We don’t know what time will tell for us. The politics of Putin are criminal, almost fascist. Worst of all, young gays and gay families with children will suffer the consequences,’ says Irina.

Kirill Kalugin, 21, is a student at St Petersburg’s Polytechnic University. He became famous for holding a one-man protest at Palace Square during celebrations of Russian Airborne Troops Day on 2 August 2013, when he unfolded a rainbow banner reading: ‘This is promotion of tolerance’ and was attacked and arrested by uniformed veteran paratroopers within seconds. ‘The protests should make people think, reflect, and create discussions in our society,’ he says. ‘Protests that are seen by no one are useless.’

Nikita Gurjanov, 17, born in Moscow, is at high school in the city’s centre. Nikita has been openly gay since he was sixteen years old, he is a member of Rainbow Association; a large organisation fighting for human rights for LGBT people, but also wants to create his own local-teen organisation in the future. Nikita hosts his own youtube channel, participates in street activism and actively helps teenage LGBT people like him with their problems, mostly to do with ‘coming out’ to their family and peers; “Sometimes young boys and girls write me messages about how they must go about telling their parents, how can they come out, what must they do, they are afraid of society and of showing themselves, I told them everything is normal, they must not be afraid, I even talk with them on Skype and on the mobile, and sometimes I even meet them in real life and help them, if they live in Russia.”

Sergey, 33, and Philippe, 39, have been together for nine years and have a Pacs – a pacte civil de solidarité – which they acquired in France in 2010. This is a legally recognised form of partnership similar to marriage. Sergey is a journalist and Philippe, who is French, works in advertising. Philippe believes that Russia’s anti-gay law has ‘obliged the masses to speak about the minorities. Even Putin has spoken about homosexuals for the first time in casual terms, so it might bring some awareness. The debates that have occurred might have helped some people understand that homosexuals are part of the human species – like left-handed people or the ginger-haired.’

Valery Solaseav, 30, is the co-founder of two community support groups, ‘Nunciare et Recreare’, a group for Christian LGBT people, founded in 2000. The Russian Orthodox Church expresses extreme hostility towards the group (and campaigned in 2011 to stop the first Christian LGBT forum in St Petersburg). Asked if there were any gay-friendly churches in Russia Valery says; “Officially not, we have one gay-friendly alternative Orthodox priest in Russia". His other project is called Lasky and works in HIV prevention among homosexual men, with outreach programs, seminars, support groups and psychological and legal counselling. In November during a weekly social event held for LGBT youth and heterosexual allies at Valery's office, the group were attacked by two assailants, one of whom shot a young man in the face with a pneumatic gun (the victim later lost his eye). A second victim, a young woman, was beaten with a baseball bat. The aggressors have not been found.

Vita Holkina, 17, fears that there will be no information or support when Russian youths struggle with their sexual identity. ‘When I was young and realised I was gay I didn’t have any problems accepting myself,’ she says. ‘Nowadays, from their early childhoods, our children will be under pressure by their parents and other adults who will be telling them that being gay is bad.’ Vita talks of a recent case after the bill was passed in which two girls committed suicide by jumping from a roof: ‘Our government took no blame. They said every day somebody commits suicide and it had nothing to do with the new law.’

Dmitry Tsarionov, 24, is a Russian Orthodox Christian and calls himself a ‘theocrat’. He believes that any person clothed in authority, be it a tsar, president or prime minister, must trust in the law of God. Dmitry believes that homosexuality is a choice or an illness, paired with a sin to God, and explains how this illness can be cured through Christian values: ‘If you read a magazine about homosexuals, if you look at it, you will understand this sexual experience can help you have a good job and a good career, and if all the idols for society are gays, it is normal that you would become it,’ Dmitry says. ‘But if the society says no, it is a sin, it is awful, I think that there will be very few people who do it.’ Another common belief, shared by Dmitry, Putin and the church, is the theory of the western world’s desire to depopulate Russia by propagating homosexuality. ‘Europeans are dying out,’ Dmitry says, ‘and gay marriages don’t produce children.’

Andrzej Kmicic, 28, is the co-owner of an advertising agency and a neo-Nazi. ‘I can’t recall the exact moment I became a skinhead and national socialist, at 16 or so,’ he says. At 18, Kmicic, along with fellow founders, invented Format18, a violent neo-Nazi group based in Moscow that was suspected of being involved in the murder of almost 600 immigrants in less than a year. Kmicic is part of a new hate initiative named Occupy Paedophilia, a self-proclaimed vigilante group that has so far enjoyed almost total impunity for its treatment of its victims. No one has been prosecuted and the group even appears to have unspoken official support. Occupy Paedophilia started months ago as a movement against paedophiles, luring potential sex offenders online and then filming and shaming them. But the group is now targeting young homosexuals. Group members say they see homosexuality and paedophilia as morally indistinguishable. ‘There’s nothing good I could think of about gay people.’